1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a thin film circuit integrating thick film resistors thereon and a method of fabricating the same, in particular to a method for fabricating a hybrid circuit board with integrated thick film resistors on high density printed circuit boards by a combination of screen printing and copper plating.
2. Description of Related Arts
For printed circuit boards, the current trend is towards high density circuit layouts and planarization of components. It has always been a challenge for circuit board manufacturers to produce high density circuit boards with high efficiency.
A large percentage of components used on hybrid circuit boards are resistors and capacitors. These passive components are conventionally coupled onto printed circuit boards with surface mounting technology (SMT), which are often referred to as SMD resistors and capacitors. However, the main disadvantage of using SMD devices is their high profile. When these SMD devices are coupled onto the circuit boards, the SMD devices tend to stand out from the surface of circuit boards. Therefore, these SMD devices cannot be used in present day compact electronic products due to the space requirements. Furthermore, the surface mounting technology requires the creation of contact pads at predetermined positions on the circuit boards before the resistors and capacitors are mounted, which will increase the process time in the fabrication of printed circuit boards and affect the production efficiency. Therefore, SMD resistors and capacitors are gradually being replaced by thick film resistors and capacitors in the planarization of semiconductor devices.